Stuff about, you know, puzzles

I awoke and instantly it was all wrong. I was lying on my back, but not in my bed. I tried to move my head to look around me, but found it was strapped down. The same was true of my limbs as well. I could not move. "What's happening?" I croaked out. Someone sitting nearby. "Why can't I move?"

"You need to be quiet," said the person. "Try and be calm."

"But why can't I move?" I wailed, feeling very scared. I could tell now that we were moving, probably in a vehicle of some sort. I felt the acceleration and turns we made. "Let me go!"

"Just stay still," was the only response. "Try not to move."

Softly, I began to weep in frustration and fear.

* * *

I was fifteen and it was a hot summer. Having finished my sophmore year of high school, I had decided to take a summer chemistry class. This would mean I wouldn't need to take physics in my junior year and would maybe help me get out of high school faster. Considering that I wanted to be in computer science and the only computer class offered at Santa Rosa High School at the time was more basic than the one I took in eigth grade programming, it felt like high school was a waste of time.

In the summer class, I found myself excelling at chemistry. Not only excelling, but enjoying. I understood what was being taught, including (this was the big one) logrithms. I did all the extra credit. I helped other students. I was, well, kind of a chemistry nerd that summer.

Chemistry and I? Yeah — We clicked.

The drawback was transportation. I got dropped off in the morning, but no one was available to pick me up in the afternoon. This meant I would take a city bus to a stop near my uncle's house, walk a couple miles to his house, find the bike that I had dropped off in the morning, and ride a few miles up a crazy country road that no bicyclist should really ever go on. And this was during the heat wave, with temps in the upper 90s, low 100s.

Several weeks of this went on and by the next-to-last day of class, I had an impressively high grade. Our final was on Monday, but I calculated that even if I didn't take the final, I would end up with only an A-.

I took the normal tiring route home. Exhausted, but no longer worried about the class, I decided to indulge in a nap.

I woke up, strapped down, in an ambulance.

* * *

I've done plenty of scary things in my life: stepped on a rattlesnake, fell through the ceiling of my house, fell out of a two-story tree house, and went bunjee jumping to name a few (that last one was on purpose). But that ambulance ride was most frightening experience in my life. I don't remember arriving at the hospital; I may have lost consciousness again. I don't remember being in the hospital or coming home or being told I had a seizure. The ambulance ride itself, now that I remember.

Later, my dad told me what had happened. I had woken from my nap, went into the living room, sat down in the recliner, and started seizing. My grandmother (understandably) freaked out, ran outside, and started screaming for help. My dad had just got home from work and he rushed in to help, to try and keep my from swallowing my tongue (a myth we later found out). I was pretty much done with my fit by then.

I'd had a grand mal seizure. Today, it's called (less impressively) a tonic-colonic seizure. Regardless of the name, it's the one most people think of when it comes to seizures: Full-body convulsions that are usually done in the space of a few minutes. Unfortunatley, there's not much a bystander can do to help, apart from turning them on their side in case of vomiting, and protecting their head with something soft. Never try to do anything with their mouth. They can't swallow their tongue, though they may bite it. There's not much that can be done about that.

Grand mal seizures also play hell with memory. After the seizure, whatever connection there was between chemistry and I was broken. It's as if the seizure went through and smudged all my memories of how covelence bonds work, what moles are, how to calculate atomic weights, and even how to do logrithms. I didn't attend the chemistry final the Monday after my seizure; I wasn't up for it. I (obviously) failed the final. I still got the A-. But nearly everything I'd learned was gone. Part of me is still very resentful of this one seizure for robbing me of that.

But one seizure does not an epileptic make. And my second grand mal was unfortunately not while I was in a recliner.

A few days ago on March 26, it was Purple Day. This day has been set up to raise awareness of epilepsy and show support of those who have it. Having been diagnosed with epilepsy 25 years ago this summer, I wanted to take some time to write about my experiences.

My first brush with epilepsy was not obvious, and nor did it become clear until years later that it was epilepsy. I don't think of it as my first seizure, but it probably was. At the time, my family and I simply had no idea what had happened.

Sixth grade at Whited Elementary was pretty fun for me. I had become friends with Jonathan (friend to this day and fellow puzzle hunt enthusiast), was in the advanced reading program, and was an expert at playing lava tag on the playground equipment affectionatly known as the "Big Toy". I had become a fan of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series and had just finished The Horse and His Boy.

At the beginning of morning recess that day, I dropped by the school library and checked out the next book in the series, The Magician's Nephew. I remember very clearly that it was the hardback edition. This is because the classroom was locked and thus I (and others) made a habit of dropping off our books on a little ledge right outside the door. I remember, as I put the book down, being pleased that the size of the book was almost exactly the size of the ledge. I then headed off to the playground.

That is the last thing I remember about school that day.

I woke up at home, on the couch, with my family worriedly watching over me, a damp washcloth on my forehead. I didn't understand what was happening, and neither did my family. The school had called to say I had been found wandering the playground and not really responsive. I got picked up and taken home.

I was told later by friends that I had gone to the playground and played on the Big Toy as normal. Only, when the bell rang to bring us back to the classroom, I didn't line up. The school eventually noticed I was missing, found me, and called my family. I didn't get taken to the doctor; instead, we just went home to rest it out.

Being a kid, I really took no notice of what had happened, and life went on as if nothing interesting had happened to me.

Today, it's obvious I'd had a complex partial siezure. This does not mean I fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably for a few minutes. A complex partial seizure means my consciousness was was impaired, but I was still able to perform routine tasks, such as walking around, chewing and other routine tasks. I can even attempt to talk, though what I say during a complex partial usually makes no sense to me or my listener. Loss of memory of the seizure event and surrounding time is also evidence that it was a complex partial.

It wasn't until several years later that the whole experience would fully manifest itself and I would experience my first grand mal seizure.

I used to be able to write these multi-part writeups of puzzle hunts I've played in, as a way of storing those memories longer than my own pitiful brain seems capable of these days. Now, with two kids (one under two) and maybe an hour free time a day, it's a little more challenging. I've been reduced to writing a quick summary just so I can remember what I've even done.

It felt like I didn't participate in much in 2013. That may have been because I missed two big ones: DASH 5 and Elevate Tutoring 2. It ended up that I didn't do anything the first half of the year. The first thing I played in was…

Shinteki Decathlon 8

Technically, it was a dry run of Shinteki's annual puzzle hunt/Day Game. Andrea, Dan, and I were joined by Trisha as we battled against fiendish puzzles and tried out ClueKeeper. Some quick memories:

Running through and exploring the Computer History Museum. Very interesting place. Good teams might have only had to go through once or twice. We did not fall into that category.

Knitted leg warms on a mannequin. 'Nuff said.

Trying to solve several paper puzzles in the midst of a crowded, noisy mall at lunch. Wei-hwa stared over the shoulder of Trisha (his fiancee) and casually asked her how it was going. The look she gave him – kind of a you-wrote-this-and-now-you're-torturing-me-with-it – caused him to say, "Um, I'm… going to go stand over here by Scott." He didn't say that he would watch me fail to solve the Q*Bert clue, but it was heavily implied.

Throwing a gold chain with Dan onto a Dr. T stand-in.

"This better not be one of those clues where you have to look the signs in front of a bunch of roses. I've done that nine times already and I'm over it.." – Trisha. Dan and I underwent the torture instead, it being only my second time doing a puzzle of that type. I mentally erased any plans of writing something similar in the future.

Filling digital versions of cereal bowls with digital versions of milk, using these cubes to solve get-4-gallons-using-5-and-3-gallon-jug style puzzles. Other team members didn't seem to enjoy it as much, since it was kind of a one person solve.

Getting more of the order-these-historic-events right (8/10?) on our first try than other teams did after several tries.

Realizing that "triskaidekaphobia" can be represented by Ian trying to shuffle Triskets and a deck of cards together.

Walking up and down a certain avenue in a certain town, using ClueKeeper's won't-unlock-next-puzzle-until-you-arrive-at-GPS coordinates option, and thinking that would be a useful tool.

I didn't take very many photos as that seems to drain my phone's battery, leading to less chance of looking up information on the web. As unexciting as they may be, here they are:

I think I mentioned somewhere (apparently not here) that the Burninators' 2011 run of BANG 28 was so good, it pretty much killed the Bay Area Night Game. Originally, this was my way of paying compliment to all the hard work and incredible design the Burninators had put into their BANG, and that it would be hard, if not impossible, to top. It was not intended as a prediction of things to (not) come.

Since then, however, only one BANG has been run: BANG 33. Considering its scope and purpose, it really deserved to be an event in its own right… which is has gone on to do, to much success. If one takes BANG 33 as really Elevate Tutoring Puzzle Hunt 1, it's easy to see that there hasn't been a BANG in two and a half years, Heck, the website hasn't been updated in over a year, and the oldest announcement for an upcoming hunt is over three years old. It certainly feels like the BANG is dead. Is it really?

Of course not. At any given time, some team with the gumption could put together several puzzles, find locations to put them at, announce it, and there's the next BANG. The problem is one of demand. The Bay Area now has several regular events that puzzle hunters can participate in:

Full-length Games have been popular recently, with five having been run in the past couple years (if you count the Bay Area Recast), including one that by all accounts was the greatest Game ever run (much to the disappointment of those of us unable to make it). I'm not sure that any are coming soon, but five in two years? Awesome!

This is not to mention the various online hunts (Order of the Octothorpean – a hunt that teaches how to play in puzzle hunts – or Ghost Patrol Reconstructed, or a rumored Puzzle Boat 2, etc.) or live hunts that can be played remotely (e.g. MIT Mystery Hunt, CiSRA, SUMS, etc.). There's so much going on that my friend and regular teammate Jonathan, puzzle hunt addict, has said that he is almost saturated. Seeing as his level for saturation is pretty high, maybe the highest, that's saying something.

So the BANG may not be dead and I look forward to playing new ones in the future, but right now it looks like the four reserved BANGs are going to stay in reserve.

On November 16, 2013 at 11am PST, Larry Hosken's Octothorpean Order puzzle hunt opens to the general public. One of the (many) reasons I'm excited about this is that there at last will be somewhere to point friends, family, and random strangers who are interested in puzzle hunts but may find the current thrown-in-the-deepend-and-see-if-you-can-swim method more than a little difficult. Like a video game that starts you off with only a basic idea of how to play and then gradually provides you with hints and instructions, the Octothorpean Order stands to provide would-be Gamers with a slow immersion into the tropes, styles, ideas, and common practices that make up a standard puzzle hunt. Thus provided with a toolkit of solving abilities, the inexperienced become the experienced and can begin to fully enjoy other hunts.

One interesting aspect of this is that there will be badges to earn for advancing through the puzzles. For example, I'm currently Morse Level 2 and Semaphore Level 1. This could be a useful way to provide difficulty information for new hunts. If someone were to ever run a new BANG, the hosts could say "Recommended: Code Level 3, Alphanumeric Level 1, Semaphore Level 9". That probably gives too much information away; however, if there were "Puzzlehunt Level 1 (or 2, 3, etc.)", "DASH-Ready", "Shinteki Decathlon-Qualified", I think that would be give hunt creators and potential solvers a quick and easy reference to see if they are up for the hunt.

The great thing is that Larry was able to carry through an idea that originated a few years back at the end of DASH 3. Out of all those interested in pursuing a project dedicated to helping the newbies and beginners get up to speed, Larry has been the only one to stick with it until completion. (More of the history of this thing can be found at this interview Larry and I did with Snoutcast nearly a year ago.)

Tomorrow morning, I'm set to join Dr. Bob and team for a morning of fun puzzling as we try to Escape from the Bank. Really looking forward to it, as it may have been something I inspired (aka a tiny ego trip, as detailed previously). I'm eager to see how the game play mechanics work out and how realistic it is. Having played in both Escape from Werewolf Village, where nearly all the action took place at the table in a room full of teams, and Escape from the Mysterious Room, where one team of eleven is given free reign to explore an entire room for clues, I'm betting more on the former. Either way, I expect a lot of fun.

Last Saturday, I played in Palantir's Stanford puzzle hunt with The Judean GNUs (or was it the Smoking People's Front?). I really enjoyed it, had a few key insights, and had some amazing teammates who can solve some puzzles in under five minutes (i.e. before I'm done reading the flavor text), allowing us to come in second. The plot dealt with breaking into Las Vegas casino(s) and trying to recover some stolen money. The hunt's title? The H.E.I.S.T.

Then earlier this year, the 2013 MIT Mystery Hunt's plot required teams to "pull a bank heist to retrieve the coin."

Okay, so maybe three heist-themed hunts within the space of a year is not exactly a plethora. And maybe instead of all somehow originating in my suggestion for DASH 3, a heist hunt just an idea whose time has come. DASH 3 did decide to go the fairy tale route, and suddenly it seemed like every other movie and TV show coming out were fairy tale themed (Once Upon A Time, Grimm, Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror, Jack the Giant Slayer, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Tangled, etc.); maybe something similar is happening with heist-themed hunts. Sadly, though, part of me really wants to take credit for inspiring them.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this now is that I've been slowly working on a heist-themed event and wanted to be sure that if, it ever sees the light of day, there was good evidence it wasn't a knockoff of "Escape from the Bank" that I'm playing in tomorrow. The idea came after playing in the Great Petaluma Treasure Hunt a few months ago, before either SCRAPs game or Palantir were announced. It was inspired by the discussion I had with the creator of how to get more Sonoma County people interested in this sort of thing. The thought came to me that maybe I could set up a continual-running event that came in multiple difficulty levels that would be the right size for families and give them a unique experience that made them want more. What to theme it on, though? A heist, of course!

So far, my ratio of actual events to planned events is about 5 to 11, making odds of it happening less than 33% based on past performance. Besides, there are two very important projects I'm working on with the one hour spare time that I have each day: Finishing the kitchen renovation and another longer, harder project that isn't puzzle related but am keeping under wraps for now. They need to be finished first before I can move forward with my own heist event. Here's to hoping!

The Famine Game ran this past weekend and by all accounts was one of the best puzzle hunts ever, if not THE best. See below for reactions from the community.

A few of the past hunts, such as World Henchmen Orginization and WarTron have been recast, i.e. done again in a different location, months later. It makes me wonder (hope!) that maybe it can be done again for those of us unable to participate or travel to this event. I wonder, though, would there be enough of an audience in, say, the Bay Area or Seattle? Many, if not most, of the teams that generally play in Games were out in DC. Even if there was, where would it be held? Sacramento would certainly be a thematic-worthy city (i.e. it's a capitol) that hasn't been used since Hogwarts and the Draconian Prophecy in 2006. Would it work?

But those are all questions to be answered at a later time. I'm sure right now GC just either wants to sleep in or, if work beckons, another cup of coffee. Either way, it's well-deserved.

.@TheFamineGame is the puzzle hunt I've been dreaming about since I first started doing puzzle hunts. Thanks so much to everyone involved.

The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour was recommended to me by my daughter's karate compadre, who describes it as her favorite book series. So I took the chance of reading a book recommended by a 9 year-old. I'm glad I did.

It's a fun book about a group of three friends at an all-girls Catholic school who end up solving a series of puzzles left by an unfortunately deceased grandfather twenty years ago for his then teenage granddaughter. Since he passed away before he could give her the starting information for the treasure hunt for her birthday present, all the clues have stayed hidden. These three friends volunteer to help solve the clues and find the treasure.

The puzzles themselves present no real difficulty for the experienced solver. For someone of the appropriate age group, though, I can see them defintely getting a thrill out of figuring out an anagram or a code or a riddle. For me, it was nice to see a puzzle, be able to solve it in my head and think "Nice!", and then move on with the story. I usually don't like having to get out paper and pencil to finish a book.

One of the downsides is that, of the Red Blazer Girls, only the main character, Sophie, feels fully fleshed out. I can't really tell her other two friends apart, despite being told what the differences are. When they talk, however, they feel to me like the same person. In other words, their displayed personalities don't differ enough to allow me to differentiate them by their words alone. Considering they're 12-year-old girls, maybe it's more accurate than I think.

The author, Michael D. Beil, is an English teacher and it shows. The book is littered with literary allusions that apparently these twelve-year-old girls understood, but not me. Then again, I'm not a big fan of Charles Dickens, which a large portion of the subplot revolves around. There's also an odd algebra lecture about midway through the book; maybe he was just trying to find a way to get more girls interested in math? I can only hope it works.

I say Mr. Beil does do a good job of weaving the puzzles and humor into the story. It's a fun ride.

Last month, I participated in what thus far has been the only walking puzzle hunt I've been able to participate in this year (the announcement of a new Ghost Patrol "short format" game and Dr. Bob's third rerun of Elevate Tutoring Puzzle Hunt 2 threaten to put an end to this trend): The Great Petaluma Treasure Hunt. Joining me were Dan, Andrea, and newcomer Amy.

The GPTH has a format similar to that of the Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt: You're given a bunch of riddles and puzzles that will lead you to a nearby location where you'll need to find some piece of non-obvious information, like a word from a plaque. Dan and I had played in the CNYTH years ago. While it's always fun doing things together with friends, neither of us found the vague riddles all that fun to solve. Based on Mastermind Hunts puzzles of the month, we were hoping the GPTH would be more puzzle-oriented. We were in luck.

Despite being in Sonoma County, many of the participants are from San Francisco. So much so, in fact, that the game was delayed due to a traffic accident delaying teams from SF by 15-20 minutes.

I talked with the owner, Nikolai Lokteff, while we waited, our first time meeting in person. He's a really nice guy, personable and easy to talk to. We both lamented the lack of interest in puzzle events in Sonoma County. You would think that with such a large college presence (our own state university and one of the best junior colleges in the nation), there would be more interest, just percentage-wise. Both Jonathan and I figure that there has to be more Sonoma County people than just us who would be interested in puzzle hunts if only they knew about them. Alas, it has not (yet) turned out to be the case.

There were a lot of families in evidence, which I was impressed by. Maybe 10 kids around the 8-12 years-old age group were joining their parents to run around Petaluma. Nikolai said that since the GPTH did attract such a family audience, the clues were aimed more on the easy side of things.

This seemed to me to be a perfect beginner event. There were instructions with all of the eleven clues. Some were really easy and some were more challenging, but not out of reach for anyone who knew how to do a crossword (that's usually my baseline for people who would be able to solve clues in a puzzle hunt). There was what I think of as a "stuffed" crossword, but which is more technically called a "rebus crossword", where more than one letter, usually the same group of letters, is in a single square. There was some informational ordering, connect-the-dots, an interesting spell-words-to-make-letters clue, and some just general "go to this location and use this information" type clues.

Our walk was a fun one, and not all the clues solved to "What is the third word on the plaque?" They were usually more interesting than that. One of them was an additional (quick) puzzle that, when solved, required us to call a phone number and answer a thematic trivia question. Much better than "what animal is in the store front?"

We ended up having a lot of fun exploring Petaluma and finding the answers. When done, we turned in our answer sheet and saw we were maybe the 11th team to do so. I thought we did better than that, but veterans of the hunt probably had an advantage. I pointed out to the person taking the answer sheets that there was no reason for us to stick around since only the top three teams would win any sort of prize. I was told in response that it was surprising how many of the fast and confident teams would end up getting answers wrong. His words were true as the next day we found we'd finished in 5th place, with all eleven answers correct. A satisfying finish.

I only have two complaints about the GPTH: First, there was the vague riddle clue that I never enjoy and is more of a relief to complete. Second, there was an apparently intentional red herring in one of the clues that meant if you ordered some data wrong, you'd end up at the wrong location. We ordered the data wrong but were able to devine the location anyway once in the field.

Regardless, it was a lot of fun and our newbie really enjoyed it. Fifth place is definitely a decent showing. All in all, a good event.